A Very Special Briefing:
Global Security Priorities in the 21st Century
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
4:00 – 5:00 PM
1116 Longworth House Office Building

Dear Colleague,

I want to invite you and your staff to a very special briefing on America’s global security priorities over the next several years. How can we continue to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and prevent their proliferation? How can we keep such weapons secure and avoid their falling into the hands and being wielded by terrorist networks? How can we concretely demonstrate the U.S. commitment to providing a better future for the world’s most vulnerable children? What do these priorities mean for the annual budget and spending choices Congress must make?

This week we will introduce the Global Security Priorities Act in response to these questions. This bill recognizes that the paramount need to address the threat from nuclear weapons proliferation and the threat from international terrorism are intimately entwined; and the potential instability created by communities living in poverty and despair. As the 9/11 Commission Report recommended, each must be addressed assertively and aggressively.

On Wednesday, February 6th, at 4:00 PM in 1116 Longworth House Office Building, a distinguished panel of military, religious and humanitarian experts will explore these issues:

• Major General William F. Burns, U.S. Army (ret), served as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency for President Reagan and as President George H.W. Bush’s special envoy to Russia and other FSU nations, negotiating the terms of U.S. aid to dismantle Soviet nuclear weapons. Currently, he serves on the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• Dr. Lawrence J. Korb was Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Reagan Administration, for which he earned the Pentagon’s medal for Distinguished Public Service. He served as a naval flight officer and retired from the Navy Reserve with the rank of Captain. Currently, he is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor at the Center for Defense Information.

• Dr. Stephen R. Colecchi is the director of the Office of International Justice and Peace in the Department of Social Development and World Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• Ms. Sullivan Robinson is the former Executive Director of the Congress of National Black Churches, Inc., with more than twenty-five years of executive leadership in faith-based organizations.

• Mr. Dennis W. Frado is the Director of the Lutheran Office for World Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with more than 30 years experience in international development and public policy.

• Mr. Marty Rendon has been Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF since 1995. He previously worked for over two decades on Capitol Hill with Representatives Tony Hall (D-OH) and Bill Green (R-NY), and on the House; he was Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Hunger from 1989 to 1993.

I hope you will be able to join us for this important and dynamic discussion on the need for bipartisan engagement on the combined issues of nuclear weapons, nonproliferation and global poverty.

Sincerely,
James P. McGovern, Member of Congress

Daniel E. Lungren, Member of Congress